


Prelude: An Invitation is Extended  to an Honored Guest (1)

by Olgatha Corvian (alwaysdignitywhoops)



Series: Olgatha's Homecomings [1]
Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, anthropomorphic creatures - Fandom, hogwarts - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Hogwarts, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-21
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 15:55:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12436248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysdignitywhoops/pseuds/Olgatha%20Corvian





	Prelude: An Invitation is Extended  to an Honored Guest (1)

Olgatha stopped her pacing and sat back down at her expansive antique desk. Yes, the envelope was still there, the calligraphic writing neatly addressed to her, at The Bookery, Norwich, Connecticut. There was no mistaking it. The owl who had brought it, the fifth of the letter’s bearers, had it explained it all quite clearly; he was now recuperating nearby, wrapped in one of Olgatha’s woolen shawls.  
Olgatha flipped the envelope over, again amazed at the ornate “H” stamped into vermilion sealing wax, just the same now as the seal her very first letter from the School had borne when she was a chick. She had never forgotten it—indeed, it was still displayed on her slumber chamber’s wall upstairs—but it had been many decades since she had received such a piece of mail.  
An official invitation, if you please, to attend her first school’s homecoming event next month. With some degree of trembling, feathers rustling slightly, she slit the envelope open with her heirloom letter opener, and a crisply creased piece of parchment slid out onto Olgatha’s blotter. Setting the letter-opener back into its proper place, she opened the invitation, once again impressed and rather astonished at its pompous species of grandeur.  
It read as follows:

_4 September, 201X_  
_Dear Ms Corvian,_  
_Kind greetings to you!_  
_On behalf of our School and the Board of Alumni, please know that you are cordially invited to participate in our ___th Homecoming Celebration._  
_The School has ample accommodations; we also invite you to stay here in the Castle as our guest, along with up to two companions; you and your two companions will. You are further welcome to extend our invitation to stay at the castle as our guests, meals included, to up to eight more people, although please be advised that though additional guests will have to arrange for their travel to and from our School independently, food and lodgings in the castle are entirely at these guests’ disposal._  
_We wish to make it known to you, Ms Corvian, that at this time you are our most senior alumnus, and are therefore especially welcome to attend this ten-day event as a Guest of Honour. If you are disposed to do so, we would be so pleased to have you addressed the assembled faculty, alumni, family, and current students on the evening of the 19th October, after dinner. The topic can be of your choosing, though it would be greatly appreciated if you could share some of your unique observations on how our School and the Wizarding World has changed over the years, based on your personal experiences, of which we are sure you have many._  
_It would aid us greatly in our preparations and planning if you would please to respond with your answer about your attendance, whether or not you wish to grace us with a speech on the 19th October, and how many companions and guests you expect to join you, if any._  
_We do hope you will come._

_Most sincerely,_  
_Marciella Fullermont,_  
_Chair,_  
_Board of Alumni._

  
Shaking her head in mild mystification, Olgatha refolded the parchment and reached for its envelope, still resplendent in its wax stamp’s vivid redness, and was surprised to notice that it was shuddering slightly, as if anxious. Then the sides of the envelope bulged; it looked as if there were some living creature inside, trying to escape. Olgatha gingerly seized the envelope by its edges, with the torn-open narrow side downward--she had opened it that way in order to leave the nostalgia-laden stamp intact.  
At once, a lavender-colored slip of paper slid energetically out, falling to Olgatha’s blotter. It did not seem to have any writing on it, but a moment later the paper seemed to struggle to flip itself over, reminding her of a camper wriggling to right themselves while zipped into a sleeping bag. Now words did appear, written with finesse and with dark purple ink. It was from the chairperson.

_Hello, dear Olgatha, I imagine you have forgotten it, since it was so very long ago, but we did meet back when I was a young woman, at the 1866 Homecoming Celebration; I was among the members of the welcoming committee, and we were both in the Alumnae’s Photograph. I’ve always had a great amount of respect for you, and I am truly hoping to see you once again this year. We are expecting a rather exciting time of it. Dozens of charming people will be there, old friends and surely some new ones, with such marvellous stories to tell. And there’s a special, secret guest this time...I can’t tell anyone, not even you, and I hope you’ll forgive me, dear._  
_Please be well, and travel safely! Please say you’ll come. We are waiting with open arms and/or wings, if you’ll allow the expression._  
_Yours sincerely,_  
_Marci Fullermont_  
_October the Fourth_

  
Olgatha set the note aside, mentally taking in this information and considering it piece by piece, murmuring to herself the while.  
“Homecoming, ten to twenty October...dear me, can I afford to take that much time off?...Oh, heavens, of course I can! There’s time enough beforehand to make preparations, and while I’m gone some of the grown Corvians can preside over the Bookery, also taking care of the weekly routine and the young ones--and once we’re back, ten more days remain till The Holiday. Very well, then. What’s next? Ah, let’s see...two guests, plus eight; I see. The Dwarves, one Hobbit, and I suppose I shall have to play at being Galdalf. Fine! But how to handle the Eight’s travel costs? After all, I must be fair. I could simply cover any costs myself, naturally—but one must consider everyone’s feelings. I can’t see my little ones hurt! And I don’t want to exclude anyone simply due to money issues; it shouldn’t be the wealthy versus the poor—and, ah! It must not be the other way around, either! I have to consider...no favoritism. But some of my little loves have had so few special treats in their lives. Well, I’ll get it worked out somehow. I first must send out my answer immediately...once Ogilvie has had a good nap and some good victuals. Poor thing!  
“I should like to provide all these messengers—whether they’re the same other four or not, and not depriving the original four if it’s not them this time—with some reward or—well, some token of my gratuity. It really is a pity that the wizards’ currency is so given to those heavy coins over there! Still, after so many complaints and so many failed resolutions...I cannot in good conscience load Ogilvie up with nine birds’ worth of Wheels! I’m not even sure if I have all that much in Great-Brizard currency! It’s all Wizards’ Bank of America these days, for me. Well, I wonder if they could manage to exchange some paper money for local coins, for those on that end. I shall have to ask the Recumbent Raptor in the Beanbag when he arises.  
“Now, for my response...”  
She brought out her fancy writing kit and set to it, indicating that she would be very pleased to come, to give her talk to the assembled ears, and to stay at the castle with a yet-to-be-determined number of guests, but surely her two “companions” and very likely the full complement of eight guests more. She further inquired about how she and her two complimentary guests would be traveling, because some of her company were minors, and she would hope to arrange for the entire group to travel together. After all, depending on the mode of transportation, it could well be a _very_ long trip!  
She very warmly thanked Madame Fullermont for her kind words and the school for all these generosities, and she then expressed an eagerness she only half felt to see the chairperson again. Truth be told, she only half remembered the gregarious witch, but nevertheless, Marciella _appeared_ to recall her well, if her sincerity was worthy of belief. It was true that Olgatha loved many people and creatures, but not in the rather obnoxiously public way that some people did—it made her think of politicians and salespeople. And that was how she made the perhaps unfair connection between those self-serving persons and Madame Fullermont’s possible insincerity, perhaps—she reasoned, thinking it silently but while pantomiming a conversation with an unembodied alter-ego of her own—perhaps she was sincere, and did remember her. At her age, after all, forgetting was all too common. We shall have to see, dear.  
Olgatha’s considerable flock of beloved ones of all types was not one intended or performed for the eyes and ears of an audience; it was a quiet, individual, personal sort of closeness whose qualities varied with each of the darlings, as well as a gorgeous-feeling collective, which she cherished just as much—and which she had purposely installed as weekly gatherings for those in residence at the Corvians’ Bookery, and the others who were attached to it; many of these were former housemates who were now fully grown. Some were even old, at least by human standards, even though she still thought of them as her brood of hatchlings.


End file.
